Mon 1/26 - Sun 2/1

Monday was a big day here for first semester students. It was their first "mini" as they call it or test. After minis students tend to take the rest of the day off. I arranged for a friend to watch Kari and Emma so Mark and I could go on a date for lunch. We went to La Flambou which is close to campus. It's right on the water at PBH (Which I have learned stands for Portsmouth Beach Hotel. There are little cabin type places that are right by La Flambou that is the hotel I guess. That general area is just referred to as PBH.) As we were walking there Mark said, "I like medical school." He said he wanted to say that before he got his score back. :)

Our view as we ate.

We shared this delicious chicken quesadilla. (We weren't too hungry.)

A friend recommended their (virgin) pina coladas.

YUM!!! I will now recommend them too! 

Not great lighting even with the flash on my phone but I like us! :)

We turned around the other way so we would not have the back lighting. This one is much better of us but not so much for the background...

After lunch Mark changed and went snorkeling there. He is a big fan of snorkeling. His newest dream is to get a spear gun thing and catch some dinner. 

While he went snorkeling I decided to kick my feet up and relax for a few minutes before going back to get the kids.

And of course some selfies. 

After I got the kids from school we walked back to Mark on the beach. We watched a bird dive into the water to catch fish.  

 We stopped by IGA on the way home and bought 6 Liters of Caramel Toffee ice cream. It's definitely not normal American ice cream but it was a treat.

A side note for the day is there was a tiny little lizard inside our apartment! It was actually pretty cute. We were on our way out and didn't deal with it but never saw it again.

Tuesday I got onto Pinterest and found a recipe that claimed you could make bread in an hour. It looked good to me so I tried it. I found it to be successful. 

Wednesday wasn't very eventful. Which isn't a bad thing...

Alexis and Isaac go to the pool on campus every Thursday with their school. Because Kari only goes to school for half of the day she misses out on the pool. So this week Emma, Kari and I went along with them.

The ocean is off to the left not terribly far away. Isaac wanted the picture to show water coming out of the torpedo...

This guy came right up by the pool to visit! It was our first iguana siting! I was pretty excited about it!

Friday I saw an ant in our apartment for the first time. I knew they would find us. It was just a matter of time. They are little tiny ants that scurry around fast.

There is a gal here whose husband just started his last semester here. She gathered some stuff she wanted to get rid of and had a little sale at her apartment. I went and checked it out. She has 2 little girls. I got a few kid books and some swim suits and things for Emma to grow into. I also got a fun little YBike Pewi. I'd never seen one before but it's good to help little ones learn to walk and a fun toy as they're a little older too. I thought it might be too fast for her right now but she actually did a really good job walking with it.  It's crazy to look at my friend's little girl who was the same age as my Emma when they first got here. Time is going to fly and Emma is going to change so much!

Saturday I went over to a friend's house to learn how she makes bread. I didn't go over last week because Kari had been sick. Mark kept all the kids at home. Emma napped and Lexi was in charge so he could study. She chose to work on dishes while the other two watched a movie. She wants to have more responsibilities. It's so hard to teach them and let them do things when it is a million times faster and more effective for me to just do it. I know I better take advantage of her desire to learn though.

We arrived to the island on December 31st and it is now January 31st. We have been here an entire month!!!! It's so crazy to me! Not long ago I was having a hard time imagining myself here at all. We expect to be here for 16 months so assuming that holds true we are 1/16 of the way through. Haha! I'm not starting a countdown quite yet but I do miss America.


Sunday is here again and it is now February! Carnival is the 16th and 17th of this month but apparently they celebrate most of the month. I don't know that it will get very crazy around us though. It sounds like they gather in the capitol city of Roseau.
As we were leaving for church this morning a little bird flew into our apartment! It was a bit exciting. Mark successfully guided it back out the door. We had a Stake Conference broadcast at church. Elder Holland and Elder Packer were two of the speakers. We didn't have a very good internet connection to stream it properly though. It was hard to piece together what we heard with all the pausing and skipping. I was sad. Mostly because there were more local people in attendance that came to hear the broadcast.  Maybe it can be downloaded and watched later. I don't know.